".... we have removed the drywall to see our limitations..." Good. Good. Hidden in your simulation drawings are a pony wall under the sink counter and a floor to ceiling drain pipe in a pillar/column/cabinetry tower. Question about drain pipe: plastic or metal? Plastic ("PVC") or metal ("cast")? Why: noise when drainage water from above drops down the pipe. You need to know how much to wrap it, how much to insulate it. This means you have less storage inside the tower, or more, depending on whether it's PVC or cast. Pony Wall: not a big limitation. I'm certain you can work it into your storage that will be accessed from the dining room side. Sink Drain pipe is where it is. Answer: can have a double sink or two separate sinks emptying into that one drain pipe. Either one P trap, or 2 Ptraps one of which is AAV-vented. Btw, calling something stacked is ultimately going to lead down that same road again, towards humor that is only temporarily funny but not good for the long term. Please just call it an apartment condo just like the million other apartment style condos in urban highrise buildings -- even though yours isn't in a skyscraper. july, I skimmed through your previous thread and saw that the humor had been cleaned up. Good. I liked the fun but now it's over. Working inside a space that has a couple of strongly-worded physical limitations, like a condo with pipes that "have to stay", I find you have to keep an open mind. As you get underway,, you may find that some things CAN be reduced in size to be smaller than you thought. The pony wall might get shrunk and shrunk and shrunk and shrunk. If you post about it in the Remodeling Forum, with an excruciating amount of detail, you may find people give you a number of good ideas about how to reduce it or integrate it into your storage. Kitchen forum people are, for the most part, not experienced renovator builder types, and of those who ARE, they are mostly not interested in asking about studs (spacing and sizing), the physical reasons for a structure, and the mechanical aspects of structures. Hint hint. You've been told. When you are building your sink counter run, you might discover that the pony wall can be made to disappear for all intents and purposes, as long as... (see new thread about the pony wall). In this forum the pony wall is not a productive subject. In this forum you get people who accept things as given. I'm certain you can work the pony wall into your storage that will be accessed from the dining room side, or find an even better alternative. What you are doing with the pony wall and with the drainwrapping cabinetry is like urban in-fill construction, where your plans on paper represent most of what ultimately gets built, but not all. The plans are a subjective guide not a strict order. In an infill project, when you come across an opportunity to grab a few more inches you grab those inches. You are expanding your kitchen from the inside while apparently maintaining the same footprint. Also good to know, as knowledge that allows you to understand your options: it is permissible to rebuild drain pipes so that they zigzag downwards. Drains are always built with zigzag offset bends in order to allow the pipe to expand and contract normally and remain roughly the same size from floor to floor, so it is acceptable to add an offset in the drain. This is merely good to know, and not a recommendation to consider this as an option unless there is a big reason for it. In 2011, the pony wall may be a strongly worded physical limitation because the humans who dominated the committee at that point in time used their existing knowledge to the best of their abilities at that point in time. But, you may find that this or any other socalled requirement issued by the committee disappears as you progress through the renovation and AS you persist in your pursuit, showing things and explaining things to people who don't know everything that you now know as you renovate. Committees have been known to be wrong, to drop previous requirements, etc. I have seen many cases of committees that write and say one thing and then hire workers to do the opposite thing, even while the committee maintains its written position. The one or two committee members who know what's really happening don't mind the doublespeak, and the other committee members are comforted by the nice wording in the resolution that they voted for, and truly believe that the wording described what really got built no matter how much time you spend talking to them. About the sliver piece of countertop that crosses the tower: this kind of detail is best handled by an architect, or a high level designer, or a good taste handyman, WHEN you get closer to there and when you truly have built that tower thingie that way. Right now it's idle thinking, too far in advance. You don't know yet whether your tower will be that size. Hth,

Many great features..it's a pity of course the fireplace is so oddly placed next to the window but oh well I'd be an odd person that'd prefer putting a sofa on the left, TV on the right..just a gut feeling..plus I'd love to be closer to the fireplace when lounging I love (some)sectionals but with one smaller living area you'll get more flexible arrangement with a sofa plus two easy chairs. No long sofa-84' would be the max I'd go with. Then of course I can still lay down on small/medium sized sofas since I'm not tall..and if you're very tall and prefer to lounge that of course should be taken into account. Maybe you can have an ottoman in lieu of coffee table-a) comfy to use as additional seating b) put a tray on it and you can treat it as a coffee table I'd try to remedy the living room window situation with either hanging double rods..or maybe looking into suspension from the ceiling rods..so you'll have more place between the rod and the window itself thus covering A/C unit when you feel like it. I'd go with curtains that don't differ much in color from walls/fireplace..maybe solids, maybe very subtle pattern/texture that combines white and gray. It's good that you can't place TV over the fireplace, the fireplace is fab I'd use the opportunity of the longer wall and look for some combined storage that would be able to incorporate TV/maybe books/documents/maybe table linens and all sorts of stuff like that, whatever you need to accomodate. It can be of any style. Don't forget light and plants-first they're pretty second they're useful, third they're best friends when one needs to create sense of balance. Dining table-I'll try to go with the round one (is 48' inches enough? or even better if it has a leaf and you can go to oval shape when needed) since it's easier to navigate around. Of course one needs to see the dimensions of the room to say for sure. I'd keep it closer to the left wall. In the bedroom I agree with previous posts..put up the curtains, no one will care the bed is off centered. You might continue to care though:) If a person is into symmetry he's into symmetry. But a sense of symmetry can be achieved also by careful minding of balance. You'll have nightstands, lights.,again plants if you wish so..you'll have art at some point..now you see an empty room (is it empty now?) with all the faults under magnifying glass so to say..but it won't be empty. Ignore slight assymetry and balance your other pieces. Look for the visual weight to be more or less same allover the room. Nice storage you've got there!

Hello, I’m about to renovate my kitchen and I thought I’d get some ideas about how to improve my space rather than just recreate (with new cabinets) the old layout. I’ve read the “new to kitchens” thread, thought it was really helpful, and I’m going to try to follow all the advice it contains. First of all, a little about me and my family. We are two adults and two young kids. We bought a condo a while ago and we’re renovating the whole place with new flooring, paint, lighting, fans, etc. We have some ideas to change up the kitchen, which I’ll write more about later. Right now, I’m pretty much the only cook, although my kids help me a bit. We eat almost all meals at home, and I cook dinner from scratch every night. I cook vegetarian and use mostly the cooktop, not the oven. We don’t entertain at home very often. We use our table for eating/hanging out/kids’ art projects, etc. and we don’t like counter seating. Having the kitchen open to the living room is not something we want. I have already purchased new SS appliances. I have a 24” dishwasher, 30” range and microwave/hood, and 36” counter depth fridge to be installed. It’s a second floor condo, which means we have limitations on what can and can’t be moved. Basically, I don’t think we can go into the floor or a shared wall to move things around, but I can check on that. The plumbing probably can be moved a little bit to the left or right, but should stay on the same wall. The stove could also be moved a bit to the left or right, but should stay on the same wall. I think I have more freedom with the fridge, because the water line can be extended pretty far, right? The only problem might be accessing the shut off and running the line under/behind cabinets. My goals for the kitchen renovation are to improve it cosmetically and optimize its functionality. This is going to be a DIY IKEA kitchen and although I want it to be gorgeous, we need to make choices that are in keeping with the fact that our condo is on the lower end of the price spectrum! I’ve been playing around with the IKEA kitchen planner so I’ll see if later I can upload some of the layouts I’ve come up with. We’d like to eliminate the pantry and use pantry cabinets instead. We’d also like to eliminate the angled sink (seen in pics) and build the wall out straight. I made those changes on the hand drawn kitchen plan. None of this has been done yet, so please tell me if we’d be making a big mistake to eliminate the pantry and straighten/extend the wall. I’m thinking it’ll give us a cleaner, more modern look. Sweeby test results: Modern with a natural twist, clean and sleek but not too stark, calm, tranquil, soft/soothing colors. I’m trying to attach photos of the entire unit floor plan, a hand written kitchen floor plan, photos of the current kitchen, and an inspiration pic of an IKEA showroom kitchen with nearly the same dimensions as mine. Thanks so much for reading this far, and please let me know if there’s any information I forgot to provide.

think & kudz: I was attempting to give the owners the maximum view and balcony access by making the middle bedroom the master, leaving the larger master (which is quite far from the bath) to contain guest, office and media room furnishings with no balcony and possibly a less exciting view. Not sure which view sees the ESB, but assume it is the balcony area since the OP is focused on that. With the bed placed on the "west" wall of the room, the view may be enjoyed from there and chairs can be added near the opening and/or on the balcony in good weather. Perhaps the smaller closet in the room could be converted to a coffee/wine bar, turning the space into a self-contained a.m.or p.m. retreat. A door on the "north" end of the "east wall" could give easy access to the office. The main issue for me is the distance anyone has to go to reach a bathroom. If the foyer closet and LC could be moved forward that bath would at least feel more spacious and the shower enclosure could be larger. I also wonder if that front foyer WIC would be better if incorporated into a larger, more luxe master bath.